Rain Garden and Native Plants for St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church
St. Dunstan’s Church in Bethesda is going native - with native plants and a rain garden! In the spring of 2025, LFWA was awarded a $75,000 grant from the grant from the Montgomery County Department of Environment Protection to install storm water management on the very hilly St. Dunstan’s Church campus in Bethesda. A rain garden to capture and treat rain water flowing from the parking lot and adjacent grass hill is planned as well as extensive native planting to replace the grass on the steep hill adjacent to the new rain garden.
Not only will these green techniques send the rain water into the ground, but the native plants will attract insects, butterflies and other flying wild life. Birds will love the new planting because of the increase in food source and we might even see some bats.
plant list:
The area has three main sections:
A swale connected to a trench drain to convey water from the driveway and parking lot. The swale will be primarily planted in grasses.
The rain garden at the bottom of the hill will be a mixture of grasses and perennials flowers.
The hill above the rain garden will be planted with shrubs for easy maintenance.
The plant list is HERE.
Before picture with location of the rain garden marked in orange.
Funding partners
Funding is provided by the Montgomery County Water Quality Protection Fund, the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA).
